Bemidji Fire Department Holds 3rd Annual Badge Pinning Ceremony

Four firefighters from the city of Bemidji and six from the city of Solway celebrated an incredible milestone last week at the third annual Bemidji Fire Department Badge Pinning Ceremony.

After a full year of dedicating their service to their respective cities, the fire department officially swore in 10 new firefighters for the two cities.

“We join together tonight in celebration of firefighters completing what we call their probationary period, or one year of service to the city, while completing the standards, benchmarks that we’ve laid before them,” said Bemidji Fire Chief Justin Sherwood. “So essentially, all the firefighters here, the ten in total from both Solway and Bemidji, were celebrated because they completed Firefighter One. They attended multiple other trainings, responded to emergency calls, and have been found to be a fantastic fit with our organizations.”

The fire chief wanted to have this big ceremony for the new recruits because firefighters often don’t celebrate their own victories.

“The fire service or firefighters in general are humble people,” stated Sherwood. “We usually don’t celebrate our accomplishments and the things that we’ve done. To our knowledge, this was only the third time that it’s ever happened. And in a world where fire departments, firefighters, fire chiefs have to promote their departments and the people that serve them, this is a great way to do it, especially in front of the families, because we know that they’re the ones who have given so much.”

In the previous two years, this ceremony only involved the city of Bemidji. But for this third year, things were done a little bit differently by having the city of Solway join the ceremony.

“One of the big changes was that we invited our neighboring department,” added Sherwood, “We so often work with our mutual aid partners, so we wanted to come together and unite as one here.”

Now that they have been officially sworn in, the new official firefighters can’t wait to get out on the road.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for one year and hearing about it from the senior members for a long time, and it’s an honor,” said Chris Christensen, one of the six new firefighters for Bemidji. “It’s been a dream. You know, I think every kid dreams of it when they see the red trucks with their shiny lights and the siren driving fast through town. You know, every kid, I think, dreams of what it would be like to be on that. And so it’s kind of surreal that it’s come full circle for me and now I’ve been able to do it, so I love it, I’m gonna enjoy it.”

Sherwood also says that just because the new firefighters have earned their badges, that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything left for them to achieve.

“Now that these members have achieved their badge, they’ve gained more responsibility, but also the doors open for them to achieve, you know, new training components such as driving and maybe even one day becoming an officer,” he explained. “So [it] opened the floodgates for them to move forward, but also vacate some seats for the 10 new members we just recently hired. So we look forward to fostering and mentoring the 10 new members that we recently hired in cooperation with all the other departments in our area. And we hope next year is bigger and better.”

Retired Bemidji Assistant Fire Chief Bruce Hemstad was the guest speaker at the event, where he discussed the differences between the recruiting process before he retired and the importance of brotherhood and sisterhood within the fire department.